


Entropy

by Deltaremium



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Gen, Human Davesprite (Homestuck), Implied/Referenced Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-16 18:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19937200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deltaremium/pseuds/Deltaremium
Summary: One moment he was on LoHac and next he wasn't.





	Entropy

He didn’t know what happened, he really didn’t. One moment he was on LoHaC, but then he wasn’t. Like he fell asleep for five minutes, but he hadn’t. He would’ve known how much time had passed right down to the millisecond. It’s overkill, but it’s true. Barely a second had passed, and he was somewhere else. 

The atmospheric heat of LoHaC changed into something more manageable, and the constant sound of metal against metal had changed into traffic. It had been three years since he had heard these sounds, but it was still familiar right down to the sirens that were in the far distance. 

He was sitting on the ground like the tool he was, unsure what the fuck to do. He patted himself down and he had all of the essentials, except two things were awry. One, he had legs. Two, he didn’t have his wings. He looked down at his hands, and they were a familiar but oh so distantly remembered white. He pulled off his shades and examined them, they were the only thing that remained of his sprite self. Instead of being the regular plain ole black that he remembered fondly, they were instead recolored orange. 

He puts them back on, and hops onto his feet. God that feels weird, Skaia was merciful and allowed him the ability to use his legs rather than letting them rot. But would he be able to walk? Well, he was about to see. It was awkward taking his first steps, but like riding a bike after a couple of years, muscle memory soon kicked in and he was walking like a pro. 

He didn’t notice at first, but he was completely decked out in his gear before he jumped into the kernel. It made him sick. He took off the white coat and shoved it into his fetch modus. HashMap, god it’s been awhile since he’s used it. It was like his life just hit the play button, and his life just resumed where it left off. 

He spends the next couple of minutes (30 minutes, 15, 16, 17) scouting out the area, and he can sure as hell say that he’s no longer in Kansas, Toto. The place he’s in is obviously not LoHaC (for better or for worse) and he was obviously no longer in Houston. He would know Houston, and this isn’t it. The city isn’t covered in building that reach the skyline, hell some of these can barely manage to touch it, and there isn’t that humid taste to the air. 

He manages to climb up to the top of a building using a fire escape and used that extra leverage in order to more effectively see what the fuck he was dealing with. Yup, definitely a city. He sighs in momentary defeat, and remembers about his iShades. He somehow has internet, not that he cares, and opens his maps app. It works! Now he just had to find out where in the world he was. 

He squints at the words on his screen, no, it had to be a joke. The universe just didn’t have enough of its fill of fucking over Davesprite, they just had to have landed him in a place called Skaia. Skaia motherfucking California. There was something ironic in there to be found, but all he wanted to do was scream (read: yell) in frustration. He might just have his own version of an Egbert tantrum. 

But of course not, he didn’t lose he cool like Egbert did. Nope, he kept that poker face tight lipped as ever. He wasn’t going to ruin his coolkid face any more than he did already. Now that he knows where he is, he has to figure out when he is. Cause he really fucking doubts that Skaia would be so kind as to drop him back in his own time. Something is fucking fishy here and for once it wasn’t him. 

So, he did what every kid did at one point in time, and fucking googled that shit. It was July the 14 th ... 2017. He let his surprise slip out, his eyes widening at the date. Holy fucking shit. You’re fucking old. Or well you would be had your body aged accordingly to this timeline. But it didn’t, so now you’re a twenty-two year old stuck in a sixteen year old body. Nice one, Davesprite. 

Well this is a first, he just went with the assumption that universe hopping would stop happening after the damn scratch, but nah, Paradox Space had other ideas. Which is fine, except it’s not. He continues to sit on the roof of this dingy old apartment, and recaps what he already knows. But what is he going to do with that? 

He opens his pesterchum not at all surprised to find that all his contacts were still there. He stares at them, unsure where to go from here. If he’s right, then all of these contacts belong to this world’s beta kids. But there are some names that have been added, and addition TT, TG, GT, and GG. Now that you mention the GT, John’s contact is back to being ghostlyTrickster rather than the familiar ectoBiologist. 

Obviously, this is a world without Sburb, so he can’t just jump in and say hey, you don’t know me but I know you! It’s his friends twice removed, and man would that be an awkward reunion because they aren’t even aware of his existence unlike the second iteration. He glares at the screen, but he gets a ping by an unlikely someone. Hello, Rose. 

\-- tentacleTherapist [TT] has begun pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at xx:xx:xx \--  
  
TT: I don’t know who you think you are, but please log out and delete your pesterchum at once.  
TG: whoa there lalonde dont know about the hostility but fine sure right after i ask you some questions  
TG: context cause i know you love that shit so i was minding my own business until skaia decided to spit me out cause lil timmy just realized he didnt like peas  
TG: basically i aint your dave im an alt dave and i just want a rundown on what is going on in this universe cause as far as i can tell sburb managed to merge into this world  
TT: Dave, if that’s who you really are, I will comply with your questions as long as you remove yourself from his pesterchum. I don’t know what Sburb is, but I can tell you about this world.  
TG: alright cool gimme a sec  
TG: alright so lay it down on me lalonde you dont like people using your daves account understandable but what isnt is the tone  
TG: now i get its pretty fucking awkward seeing two daves at once so what happened to your dave to cause the sudden hostility unless this dave was a major douche  
TG: now thats fair cause i was also a major douche still am but to a lesser degree when through my shit and sorted that shit all out in the past three years  
TT: No, my Dave wasn’t a “major douche” as you so aptly put it. Rather he suffered a fate worth grieving. My Dave has been dead for four years, hence the otherwise uncalled for hostility. I feel the reaction was given.  
TG: oh  
TT: Oh?  
TG: okay so this sounds fucked up to everyone that isnt a dave but dead daves are pretty fucking common in my line of work  
TG: dead daves come en masses  
TG: so after the first couple of batches they start to lose their flavor cause they still taste the same but its all the same ingredients the only difference is how theyre dressed  
TT: I see.   
TT: Well now that we have gotten that out of the way, should I ask you what type of questions you have in store for me? Or were you getting to that?  
TG: alright buckle up rose i got a shit ton of question that youll either love or hate answering  
  
He stares at the blinking cursor, what was he going to ask Rose? Uhmmm...  
  
TG: hey do you live in skaia  
TG: cause i kinda need a place to crash unless you want your bro to sleep in the alleyways like the rest of the poor schmucks who make their living by panhandling  
TG: that would grade A douchement right there and i cannot allow that  
TT: Yes, Dave. I do indeed live in Skaia, but I’m not sure I will be able to house you.  
TT: For starters, you’re a complete stranger to me. I do not know who you are, aside from the fact your name happens to be Dave.  
TG: well its davesprite but since the game ended i guess i go by dave now? i honestly have no clue  
TG: the name dave hit its expiration date three years ago when i forfeited it  
TG: so i really dont know what to call myself so dave it is  
TT: Saying such things as that doesn’t really help your case, Dave. In fact it makes you sound unstable, are you unstable Dave?  
TG: im all hells of unstable rose  
TG: an emotional earthquake that reached a perfect score of 10 on the richter scale, it ravaged my land leaving me with nothing but a ruined foundation  
TG: historians have detailed that the worst catastrophe right next to john realizing he had emotions other than happy  
TG: shit was on the news for christ sake  
TT: I can see that.  
TT: Alright, since you claim to know me, wouldn’t it be fair to even the playing field so to speak?  
TT: I’ll give you my address in exchange for some questions of my own.   
TT: You say you’re an alternate Dave, further going to say you forfeited the name. What are you?  
TG: that can be taken multiple ways lalonde im afraid youre going to be more specific  
TT: What are you in relation to Dave Strider and what caused you to become Davesprite?  
TG: so sburb right?   
TG: back in my universe it was a game destroyed the world and all that   
TG: anyways we managed to fuck up on the first try and john n jade died   
TG: so we (you and i) spent a couple of months running around in whats called a doomed timeline no way to progress forward so   
TG: i did some time shenanigans and basically went back in time in order to prevent the death of our two lovely friends  
TG: jumped into the kernelsprite and became a part of the game itself   
TG: became a guide to dave himself and yeah thats about it  
TT: You are a Dave Strider, correct?  
TG: yes maam i am indeed one of the many dave striders  
TG: i just managed to live past my expiration date  
TT: I don’t think I’ll be able to house you if you also happen to look like Dave Strider.  
TG: dammit lalonde you held out the treat  
TG: im a starving dog rose you cant just do that  
TG: its treason of the highest degree  
TG: please  
TG: look i barely understand what the fuck is going on but all i know is that i dont trust any of these hobos and i feel like a toddler trying to walk for the first time  
TG: just give this dog a goddamn bone  
TT: Fine. Just  
TT: Do be quiet when you enter, I do not wish to raise alarm.  
TT: I don’t think you quite understand the importance of this world’s Dave Strider.  
TT: But fine, here’s my address.

He spends the next couple of minutes following maps until he’s in front of the Lalonde’s estate. It seems even in this world she’s still loaded, and still lives in the woods. He sends her a text telling her that he’s here, and she responds by telling him to go to the side. She’s looking down at him from her second story window, and she has a rope hanging by the side. 

Of course he being him, and she being Rose, he climbs up the rope. It isn’t the hardest thing he has done, but it was close (it really isn’t) to being one of the stupidest things he’s done. He crawls in through the window and lands on his ass when he finally gets inside. 

“You really do look like him.” She says with the poise and articulation that he’s come to associate with Rose. It’s been too damn long since he’d actually talked to her. “Well yeah, didn’t I tell you I was Dave Strider? I would hope I looked like me, kinda surprise I look like me actually. I used to be orange, half-bird monstrosity for three years, and now look where I am.” He huffs out a laugh, but it’s too weak to really mean anything. 

She crouches so that she’s eye level with him; he hasn’t been this close to her in so long. Her eyes glow in the dark, or at least they look like they do, he wouldn’t be surprised if they did. Her violet to his orange. There’s no reason for his heart to beat so fast, irregular yet not at the exact same time. But her sharp focus reminds him of a time long since destroyed. 

“While you look like my Dave, you certainly don’t act like him. He didn’t wear his poker face on like you are, he was a very open person, to me at least. I supposed prying at his cracks was just something I could do naturally.” 

“Trust me, it is. Might just be a thing every single Rose can do, you’ve done it to me so many times I’ve lost count, you meddling broad.” He says trying to tease someone so familiar yet so much a stranger. She, luckily, finds what he says amusing and gives it a quiet chuckle. “Well, any idea of where I’m gonna sleep or are you gonna let me sleep on the floor?” 

She helps him up, “Honestly, I don’t know where to put you. While I do have multiple guest rooms, it would be strange to find someone in one, especially if they weren’t invited and look like dead friend.” He wasn’t phased by the tone of her voice, those are just the cold hard facts of this reality.

“Just put me on the damn floor Rose. Get some extra blankets and we’ll be fine.” She looks at him with pursed lip, “Perhaps,” She speaks slowly, “We could share the bed.” Maybe it’s a universal constant for Rose’s to be shorter than Dave’s. 

**Author's Note:**

> Pesterlogs are fun, but they're a pain in the ass to format.


End file.
